Black and white photograph of the window of the A Rose menswear shop, 31 - 32 High Street, Cardiff when it opened [1922?]

Description

A black and white photograph of the window of the A Rose menswear shop at 31 - 32 High Street, Cardiff. As the photograph was taken when the shop was opened it is likely dated 1922 as this was when Abraham Rose bought the shop.

The display in the shop window shows an array of menswear including shirts, ties and hats.
There is a plaque engraved with A Rose's name at the foot of the window. There is also a note written on the window which is signed by A Rose. The handwriting is difficult to read.

The window displays of A Rose won awards. Notably, the A Rose branch in Wellfield Road, Cardiff – which opened in 1961 – was awarded third place in the Cardiff Shopping Festival Window Dressing Competition.

Abraham Rose was born in Norwich but his parents moved to Cardiff in 1904. The son of a tailor, he spent time working as an errand boy in a St Mary's Street (High Street) shop which was then a branch of Jothams tailors - the very premises that he would later purchase for his own menswear business. Following a menswear apprenticeship and a subsequent job in Abertillery he was able to open his own business, although during the First World War - which broke out shortly after he started this business venture - it was his younger brother's responsibility to look after while he served in the army. Following the war, he owned two shops and would go on to buy the shop in St Mary's Street (High Street), Cardiff in 1922.

Source:
‘Histories of South Wales Companies – No. 34 A. Rose – The Man’s Shop’, South Wales Spectator, January 1963.

This photograph is part of the Greenwood Family Collection.